- People see the reservation as a food desert, which is true in a way, but being a chef, learning about indigenous food and know there's
food all around us. We just have to reconnect
with the landscape and know what food is instead of calling
everything weeds. (upbeat music) (dog howling) My name is Brian Yazzie,
I'm Navajo or Diné. From a community called
Dennehotso, Arizona. Founder and now chef of
Intertribal Foodways. So I'm home after five
years to do a cooking demo. The first thing we'll
do is pick up my family. Hello. Today we're going to a place
called the Hogan Restaurant in Tuba City, Arizona. For me to go there
with my family is to experience me
coming home, you know. And also curious as
a chef just to see if there's something
new on the reservation. - [Server] Can I start you guys
off with something to drink? - [Brian] Instead of going
to a chain restaurant, I like to support
mom and pop stores. All right I know what I want, I'll try the mutton stew. - [Young Man] Mutton stew. - [Brian] To find out whose
family the sheep is from. The mutton that I get
in Minnesota is foreign. It's from New Zealand. So just having that
cultural exchange and knowing the taste
difference of hyperlocal, that was home to me. The soup usually
comes with fry bread, but I would go with
Tom's tortilla. In the 1850's, 1860's
with my tribe the Navajo, we were put into internment
camps, or reservations. We were given these
foreign ingredients, lard, flour, sugar. And fry bread became
a comfort food. But it's still oppressive to
where it's holding us back. Spam is big with
our food culture. It came from rations of
government commodity. Canned meats like
beef and chicken that you would still get to this day on the
Navajo reservation. As a chef, doing
pre-colonial food, I had to look beyond that, and
see what we originally had. The wild game, the
foraged ingredients, the cultivating of
corn, bean, and squash. Seeing what was here originally
before European contact. I bought two bags of blue corn, one bag of blue corn flour, and one bag of white corn flour. Using that to do a food demo
for my elders and my relatives. My aunties and my uncles, and some of the local
community leaders as well. (classic rock guitar) - Next we were stopping
at Kayenta Flea Market. Seeing what's available. I've seen a couple
of food vendors where they actually had
the raw ingredients, as in (inaudible)
they had seed of sumac. They had some other dried plants that you could use as herb. They also had some
medicinal plants, for sure. We're looking at the
local entrepreneurs, which are our grandmas
and our mothers who are out parking on
the side of the street and doing what they can to
provide for their families. I like to support
our local businesses. You know, just to
keep the money flowing within that economy and
helping them to stay afloat with the gentrifications
that are coming in. The chapter knew I was coming
home to do a food demo. Put some of these on here,
just a little bit like that. They put the word out there
was a community feast. We had planned to do
about five to ten people. But then the whole
community showed up. Damn, (inaudible) we need more. It's not fast food. - He needs to come out here, and do it in front of the crowd. - On the logistics side, they didn't have any
portable burners available. Just do it quick, one more. So we end up
cooking in the back. - Everybody's anxious
to see what he's doing, but (laughs) we're
not seeing much. - We made a blue corn mush. We sweetened the blue
corn mush with agave, and we added some fresh berries and some seed mix of
pepitas or pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds,
and puffed amaranth. The second was a soup. I did a Navajo
steamed corn soup, and I added squash, carrots,
and White Earth wild rice. And we had a side of a choice
between bison or elk meat. With any travel community, especially cooking
for the elders, you know, it is nerve-racking regardless of how much
experience you have as a chef. You know, you always have
to have that boundary, that respect for your elders. You know, again, that falls
back on the historical trauma of colonization,
of food rations, of what they have grown up on, and what they only
have access to. This one's bison
and that one's elk. - [Older Woman] So when are
you going to be on Rachel Ray? - [Brian] (laughing heartily) They were into it, definitely. - It has a sweet taste to it. - Uh huh. - I wonder if there's a recipe. Yeah, does it come
with the recipe? - [Brian] A couple of elders
were asking for recipes. The lady was telling me that she has all those
ingredients at home. But she never knew
that you could accumulate all those
ingredients and make a soup. We're on the campus of
Dennehotso Boarding School. And since the age of five
into my late teen years I used to live here. So there's lots
of memories here. The rock mound behind my house that was the place to go because I felt like I
was on top of the world being on that rock. I was able to overlook my house. I was able to overlook
the boarding school. Being curious and setting goals of I want to be out
there somewhere. I want to see the
world when I grow up. That has helped me
in so many ways, knowing where I come from, and knowing who I am, and knowing where I'm going.
